W3C XML Recommendations
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML recommendations are an ever-growing set of interlocking specifications.
- XML 1.0 was recommended by W3C in February 1998. It has resulted numerous additional W3C Working Groups, a Java Platform Extension Expert Group, and the XML conversion of numerous data interchange standards such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). The next version of HTML will be an XML application known as xHTML.
- XML Namespaces. Another W3C recommendation aimed at removing element ambiguity in multi-namespace well-formed XML applications.
- XML Query. The W3C standards effort to specify a query language for XML documents.
- XML Schema. The W3C standards effort to add simple and complex datatypes to XML documents and replace the functionality of DTDs with an XML Schema definiton XML document.
- XSL. XSL consists of two W3C recommendations:
- XSL Transformations for transforming one XML document into another
- XSL Formating Objects for specifying the presentation of an XML document
- XPath. XPath is the W3C recommendation that specificies the data model and grammar for navigating an XML document utilized by XSL-T, XLink, and XML Query.
- XPointer. XPointer is the W3C recomendation that specifies the identification of individual entities or fragments within an XML document using XPath navigation. This W3C proposed recommendation is defined at http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xptr.
- DOM. The W3C recommendation that specifies the Document Object Model of an XML Document including APIs for programmatic access.
The XML family of applications is illustrated in Figure 24-3.
Figure 24-3 The XML Family of Applications ('Including XML-Based Standards')